Professor Marini is correct in seeing Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan as polar opposites in terms of their views of the role of government. But he is very wrong in putting his money on the latter. FDR was born to a wealthy patrician family and came to promote the importance of the federal government’s efficacy in promoting equity and social services. One of those programs during the New Deal helped Reagan’s father who worked for the WPA in the 1930s. Reagan was an admirer all his life of Roosevelt, but he approved more of his style and communication skills than his great commitments to the working people.